WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday afternoon I welcomed aboard Josh and Steve Welch and their mom, Carol Welch. Josh makes his living in the land development/building field here in Central Texas, Steve is pursuing credentials in the field of computer science from TSTC in Waco, and Carol, among other things, works on keeping her boys in line.
No sooner had the trip started than a 4-hour long debate over where to go eat dinner ensued. There was no style of food, price point, or locale which didn’t get consideration. In the end, proximity beat out all other variables, and my wind-chilled, hungry fishing friends headed to the Dead Fish Grill directly.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Josh, Carol, and Steve Welch with a nice Lake Belton largemouth bass which was holding in some isolated cover we got near as we vertically jigged for white bass.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Friday evening, 15 March
HOW WE FISHED: Thanks to continued cool weather and persistent northerly winds, the fishing is still not where it could be by this point in the season. We were fortunate to have manageable wind velocity from the NE, and, best of all, some grey cloud cover for the majority of the trip.
We used vertical tactics the entire trip, scoring on both snap-jigging when the fish were bottom-oriented, and on slow smoking when the fish were suspended (and typically accompanied by bird action above). Whenever we encountered suspended fish we put the Garmin LiveScope into action and were therefore able to be precise in our presentations to individual fish.
As has become the norm, a significant portion of our catch consisted of freshwater drum, but the majority of our catch of 55 fish was still made up of white bass. We also managed 2 largemouth bass. All fish were taken on my Hazy Eye Slab/Stinger combination.
OBSERVATIONS: Starting to see threadfin shad in great numbers in the upper 15′ of the water column.
TALLY: 55 fish caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 3:15p
End Time: 7:25p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F
Elevation: 1.34 feet high, with a 0.09 foot rise over the last 24 hours
Water Surface Temp: 58F
Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NNE13 at trip’s start, tapering to NNE6
Sky Conditions: Grey skies due to overrunning moisture coming from the SSW in the face of a NNE wind
GT = 10
#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area B0110C
**Area B0007C
**Area B0131C
Bob Maindelle
Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service
Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle
Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle